gold anodized heatsinks

i have a few gold plated/anodized? copper heatsinks i got from the gb a while back. for maximum heat movement should i remove the "gold" from the inside? i doubt it's real gold and that's why i ask.

cheech226 said:

i have a few gold plated/anodized? copper heatsinks i got from the gb a while back. for maximum heat movement should i remove the "gold" from the inside? i doubt it's real gold and that's why i ask.

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What were they coated with, to begin with? If it's a titanium coating, it may conduct heat better than the copper within. In which case, keep it simple and leave it there. How nicely does the module fit in there, now? Because removing the coating will enlarge the hole, albeit ever so slightly.

i thought Ti was a poor heat conductor:thinking:
i'm not really sure what the coating is. i hope someone else who bought these from anthot's gb will chime in soon. as i remember they were sold as gold plated, but that may have just referred to the color. at the time it wasn't important as the price was good.

Ti isnt as good as copper!

The HS' from the GB were plated with real gold, but it is only a microscopic layer and so not very expensive. It was just to help prevent the copper from oxidising or tarnishing. Gold is actually a very good metal for thermal transfer, so I definitely wouldn't remove it! By removing it you'll also theoretically be increasing the inner diameter of the module hole, which you'll end up having to fill with thermal compound. Given the very low thermal conductivity of even arctic silver, it would be a futile exercise! :beer:

Edit: Gold is 318 Wm-1K-1, so just below copper at 400 and much better than Al at around 200! Ti is only around 25 and Arctic Silver only 7.5 Wm-1K-1

thanks grainde! that's what i wanted to hear. i never would have thought of removing it if i knew it was gold. i thought it could have been some gold colored non heat conductive coating.

cheech226 said:

thanks grainde! that's what i wanted to hear. i never would have thought of removing it if i knew it was gold. i thought it could have been some gold colored non heat conductive coating.

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No worries. So what are you planning to build?:beer:

i want to make 2x c6 loc's and a 445 in an aurora. mrcrouse tapped out the holes and installed set screws in the sinks i had from the gb.

Ok cool. I just built a c6 with an AMC driver @ 380 mA and one of Lazeerers 3.8 mm red diodes. Set the modes to low, med and high at 13, 80 and 250 mA respectively (no strobe or sos)...love the modes of the AMC drivers!

Anyway, with those HS' you can really push the diodes in your C6's... Good luck!:beer: